You Just Keep Me Hanging On
by the Delhision
Summary: This is a sequel/prequel to my other story "A Birthday to remember". Requested by Lexboss, this one-shot is a touching tale of a broken family reunited.


**Well I've said it once, I don't want to do sequels anymore, good thing this isn't a sequel than. I guess it's half a sequel, but it's also half a prequel. Now I will say that you should check out "A Birthday to Remember" if you haven't because this story is directly linked to it. Anyway, now that the joking is out of the way I have some credits to give: Lexy, the idea and plot all belong to Lexboss, Agent BM is the proud owner of the OC of the same name, everything else either belongs to me or to cartoon !**

"Lexy! Lexy! Lexy!" Nicole screamed desperately as she ran past the several aisles that were in the store, in her arms was a small blue cat which she held closely to her chest as she ran. The cool linoleum was the only cruel reminder to her that this was no nightmare, but reality, much worse than any nightmare. "Lexy! Has anyone seen my Lexy?! Someone please help me!" she cried to anyone around her in dire need.

A doughnut man who appeared to be off duty came running over concerned, "Mam, what's the matter?!" he asked, almost scared at what the response might be. "My baby's gone! Someone took Lexy!" she shouted as she burst into uncontrollable tears, soon the child in her arms wept as well, frightened by his mother's reaction though he knew nothing of what was going on. "Jesus!" the man whispered in disbelief as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed frantically, "Yes, hello?! This is officer Buskin, there's been an abduction at the supermarket on Vine St., get her fast!" he said as he hung up and turned his attention back to Nicole, Don't worry everything will be alright, we'll find her." He promised her before leaving to search outside for her.

One by one police cruisers poured into the grocery's parking lot, the sirens were silenced but the flashing blue and red lights flickered on, providing some illumination for the otherwise darkening store. They had been there for hours, gathering reports and interviewing the shoppers and workers one-by-one while others patrolled close by streets and searched each and every car in the parking lot.

They never did find her.

(years Later)-

"You know why I'm doing this right?" a gruff and intimidating voice asked through the thin walls of the room.

All Lexy could do was sniff sadly in response, she knew that any answer that she gave would only anger him more. her eyes wandered down to her wrist to look down at the metal cuff that was wrapped painfully tight around it, chaining her to the metal heater.

He was a big man, a boar, literally, he was a brown haired boar. Lexy never knew his real name, he wasn't the smartest man in the world, but he knew enough to keep his identity a secret. He took her years ago, took her right out of the stroller that she was in. He was a kidnapper that day, most of the time though he was a thief. As Lexy grew up, he used her in his crimes, in the early years she was a distraction that he would use to get attention away from the register, he would leave her crying somewhere in the store and when the workers would go to investigate he would clear the register out. Now though, he knew that leaving her to be the distraction could be unpredictable at best, so now, with the help of an accomplice or two, he would cause the distraction while he forced Lexy to do the dirty work.

She hated what he did, she hated it even more what he made her do. She hated stealing with every fiber of her being. Even though this is what she had been forced to do all her life, she knew it was wrong.

Sometimes in the evening, when he was watching tv, he would turn it up loud enough so that she could here. That was a rare treat, she would hear families on sitcoms and cartoons, she loved those shows the best. She would imagine her family being like one of the ones she heard in through the walls. She knew that he wasn't her father, she knew that she had a family out there somewhere, and one day she would find them, she loved to imagine herself meeting them one day, it was her dream, she had it every night.

He did this sometimes, whenever he was in a bad mood, normally he just shut the door and locked her in, but whenever she screwed up or tried to escape he would do this, cuff her to the radiator. To punish her in the summer he would turn it on and in the Winter he would turn it off. And right now it was getting a little toasty for her.

Lexy brought out a single claw from her paw and pushed it into the key hole. She moved it patiently, with carefully precise jerks as she picked the lock. The cuff clicked open and slid off. She had become quite good at picking the lock to the cuff, she had done it over and over again over the years, perfecting her skill. He didn't know that she could do it, she made it her point to make sure that he never knew, if he did she knew that he would get a new pair and her only freedom would be lost.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that! I asked you if you knew why I'm doing this?!" he shouted angrily through the wall, this time with the pounding of his fist banging against the thin walls.

Lexy knew that she needed to answer this time, she knew that any answer she gave would be wrong, but she knew that it was much better for him to shout and stay out there than come in here, she knew what would happen if he came in here. She reached over and grabbed a small and soft pink hat, much too small for her to wear, it had her name on it though, Lexy, it was the only thing from her old life, it made her feel safe. When she had a bad dream or when he had drank too much, the hat was there, it was a constant in a world of inconstancy.

"Yes, I know." she responded sadly, thinking back on what had happened.

(flashback)

"How much did you get Lexy?" he asked, a terrible smile on his face as he looked over to the bag that Lexy held in her hand from where he was standing near the front door. She handed it over to him timidly. The moment that the bag change hands from her to him, she knew from his expression that he wasn't happy. He feverishly opened the bag and stuck his hand in and rifled through the bills. "Where's the rest of it?" he asked angrily.

"Ugh..." Lexy mumbled, scared.

"Where's the rest of it?!" he shouted angrily, throwing the bag to the ground in anger.

"That's all of it, I swear." she promised him, trying to calm him. But it did no good, even if he believed that she was telling the truth, which he didn't, it wouldn't make him any less furious.

"Did you check under the tray? Are you kidding me?! There is barely a hundred dollars in here!" he said angrily. He was so furious that he could barely see straight.

She knew what was going to happen, that he would grab her and cuff her to the radiator and turn it on. She knew no matter what she said that that would be the outcome.

(end of flashback)

"Good, so next time check under the damn tray!" he said in a mad tone as the volume of the television rose to spill over into Lexy's room. As he did so Lexy could hear the distinctive sound of the crack of a plastic bottle cap coming off and the gurgle of whisky emptying into a plastic cup. The sound was music to Lexy's ears, most nights it was the worst sound in the world, but tonight it was a Godsend.

He always drank after a job, no matter the success of it. If it was a good job then he drank as a celebration, if the job went south he drank to drown his embarrassment and humiliation, either way he always ended up drunk, and when he gets drunk he gets sloppy.

Lexy had been planning for months, learning every way out possible, learning the streets to the stores that she had been forced to rob, even testing her talents on the door locks, slowly getting closer and closer to escape, while still containing herself and being patient, she knew that she had to bide her time and wait for her moment. that moment is going to be tonight.

As the minutes turned to hours and the periodic gargles of whisky being poured into the plastic cup, Lexy forced herself to be patient and wait, despite her nearly overwhelming excitement to run away. It was hard, harder than anything else she had ever done in her life, the taste of freedom was so close that she could barely keep herself from picking the lock to the door and rushing out to the street and to be free at last, but she knew that she needed to wait, if she left one drink too soon and she'd be latched back to the radiator and with a new pair of cuffs then and she'd be back to square one. Lexy knew all too well that patience was the key to everything.

Lexy started to sing softly to herself to help pass the time, she didn't know too many songs, but there was one that she faintly remembered her mother singing to her, "Just a perfect day, drink sangria in the park and then later when it gets dark we go home. Just a perfect day, feed animals in the zoo, then later a movie too and then home. Oh it's such a perfect day! I'm glad I spent it with you! Oh such a perfect day! You just keep me hanging on, you just keep me hanging on."

More time and more booze was lost as Lexy waited for the inevitable passing out of the drunk, eventually her painful patience payed off. She suspected that he might have lolled off, but wasn't sure until she heard the sploosh of the half-full plastic cup hitting the floor.

it was time.

Lexy stuffed her pink hat into her pocket as she slowly made her way towards the door to her room quietly, just to be safe not to wake him, and ended up at the lock. It was a normal lock for a normal door, but that didn't stop it from being an inconvenience. She brought out her claw and stuck it carefully into the lock, she carefully felt around for the tumblers and slowly twisted her claw in the lock until she heard the reassuring click that quietly told her that she had succeed.

Lexy slowly opened the door to minimize the creaking and to make sure that he was asleep. Sure enough he was, and by the look of the half empty whisky bottle he's be out for a while. She slowly tiptoed her way across the disgustingly unkempt floor to avoid causing any unnecessary noise, a task that was much more difficult than Lexy had accounted for, plastic solo cups and empty bags of chips were strewn across the floor without care. _'What a pig __sty!'_ Lexy thought to herself, it almost made her giggle at the unintentional wordplay, but she held it in and remained calm.

He had left the door open, he always left the door unlocked so his friends could walk in as they pleased, but this was almost careless! Maybe it was because of his anger from the lousy job or him being drunk or maybe it was just dumb luck, it really didn't matter any which way to Lexy, she was just happy that it was open and unlocked.

As Lexy took her final tentative steps to the exit she turned to take one final look at her abysmal prison and her evil jailer. The dirty boar that lied on the old couch with his yellow tusks and black hooves, who used to be her master, was now nothing more to her than a drunk whom she looked down on from where she stood, just a step away from freedom. One look was all she took, that was enough for her.

And with that she took her first step into the warm night air. She didn't hesitate a second time to look over the house that had served as her prison, she just ran down the warm black top road as fast as she could. She ran and ran, turned corner after corner, all the while trying to think of where to go. She ran past houses that looked like her old prison and she just ran faster and harder with every subtle reminder.

She turned a corner, her longs burning and muscles aching, to find herself on main street. the street was illuminated by the occasional street lamp and the dim lights of stores that had been closed for hours. As Lexy ran down the street she felt a wave of guilt run through her mind as she passed some of the stores that she had been forced to take part in robbing. She shook of the feeling and resumed her running, promising to herself silently that she would repay them somehow someday.

As she ran she noticed a small payphone on the other side of the street and quickly ran across to it. Lexy grabbed the black plastic phone quickly and pressed it to her ear, and, to her joy, she heard the monotoned continuous beep that ensured her that it was in working order. "911" she whispered to herself as she pressed the three cold metal buttons, Lexy didn't know exactly what would happen when she dialed or even if it would work without money, but she did know that the man that kidnapped her was always terrified that someone would call 911 during a job.

"Hello, this is the Elmore police department. What is your emergency?" a bored and obviously tired woman's voice asked through the speaker. The sheer joy and excitement that Lexy felt temporarily left her mute to respond. "Hello? Is anybody there?" the voice asked, this time sounding much more impatient. "Yes! Hello!" Lexy responded excitedly. "What is your emergency?" the lady asked for a second time. "I just escaped from the man that kidnapped me and forced me to rob places for years!" Lexy blurted out hurriedly. "Oh really? What was this person's name?" the voice asked in a grumpy tone of disbelief. "I don't know..." Lexy admitted bluntly. "Oh yeah, I bet you were kidnapped by a man for several years and you never got to know his name." the voice responded in an annoyed tone. "It's true!" Lexy said, trying desperately to convince her. "Ok, joke's over! Who is this?!" the voice asked angrily. "My name's Lexy." Lexy responded. "Lexy what?" the voice asked annoyed. Lexy went silent at that moment, she had never know her last name, hell, if it wasn't for her hat she wouldn't even know her first. "That's what I thought!" the loud voice said angrily, "Now I'm going to give you this one warning to never try and prank call the police ever again, or else!" the voice shouted angrily. "No! Wait! This isn't a prank..." Lexy begged, but she heard the click of the phone that disconnected her.

She stared at the phone in disbelief for a moment before pounding it angrily against the receiver angrily over and over again in frustration. Tears began to well up and fall as she pounded the phone against it's box. Eventually her rage subsided into defeat as she dropped the phone to dangle on it's wire as she whispered "Help me! Help me!" to the black plastic phone that swung from side to side in front of her.

(Weeks later)

Lexy was sitting outside of a super market's doors with a sign in front of her with the words "Need money to eat anything helps." written on the front of a cardboard box. she was wearing a hoodie and jeans, both of which wear weathered and dirty with wear. Her head was held down in shame, she felt weak and useless by having to beg to get enough money to eat, it was degrading.

A woman walked up to the entrance, but Lexy did not look up, too many times had she been hopeful for a little generosity from a person only for them to pass her by without even a glance, like she wasn't even worth looking at. But this woman stopped for a moment, moments later Lexy could hear the clatter of coins hitting the bottom of her box, "Thank you." Lexy said softly, but gratefully. the woman didn't say a word and just proceeded to walk into the store.

More and more people entered and exited the super market through the door that Lexy sat next to, all of them carrying large bags or pushing carts that were filled to the brim with groceries that made Lexy's mouth water and her stomach growl to remind her of the painful hunger she had, but not a single one of them stopped or tossed any change into her box. And as she realized this more and more, she thought more and more of the woman that did stop. Lexy didn't know why so many of these people didn't toss any change to her, she knew that at least half of them had payed in cash and had some coins, but there must be a reason why they didn't, so why did the woman? What did she see that made her stop and acknowledge her? The more she thought about her, the more Lexy regretted not looking at her.

Lexy heard the sound of the electronic door sliding open again, and the thumping of feet on the concrete as another person exited the store. then they stopped in front of her and reached her hand into her plastic bag, rustling as the person searched for something. Lexy looked up to see a woman pulling out first a single sandwich, then another. "I know this isn't much, but…. Here." She said as she offered her the sandwiches, her familiar voice identifying her as the woman who threw change into her box. Lexy was surprised, no one had stopped to talk to her, let alone offer her food, even for the high status that Lexy held her in this was unexpected. She looked toward the food and timidly reached out for it. Once Lexy had both sandwiches she immediately tore the wrappings off of one and began to eat like she hadn't eaten in days. "Thank you!" she said gratefully with a mouthful of turkey and bread. Lexy didn't know what is was about this woman, but she trusted her, she knew that she wasn't being pranked or pitied, it was almost like she knew her somehow, _'I hope I didn't help rob her or anything.' _Lexy thought as she ate.

The woman smiled and began to walk to her car, but then she heard something that made her stop in her tracks. "Just a perfect day, drink sangria in the park and then later when it gets dark we go home. Just a perfect day, feed animals in the zoo, then later a movie too and then home. Oh it's such a perfect day! I'm glad I spent it with you! Oh such a perfect day! You just keep me hanging on, you just keep me hanging on."

The woman turned quickly and slowly walked back to the girl. "Excuse me." She spoke softly, in a hopeful but cautious tone. Lexy looked up confusedly toward the woman who gasped, stunned. The woman saw Lexy's short pink fur that was dirty and matted, but clearly pink. Her eyes were big and brown, though they were tired. "Lexy?" The woman muttered in disbelief. "Yeah? How do you know my name?" Lexy asked slowly, as though she did not want to get sucked in by hope only to be disappointed again. "Lexy, it's mommy." she uttered in disbelief, hope was being replaced by certainty, sadness by joy. "Mom?" Lexy questioned slowly, realization slowly taking hold. Tears welled and rolled down Nicole's smiling face, "It's me honey. It's mommy." Nicole confirmed as she stood feet away from her daughter, neither were able to move as if they had been glued to the ground.

The two look at each other for a final moment in their original positions, Lexy sitting slouched on the could concrete and Nicole standing feet away with a plastic bag dangling from her arm, a tub of ice cream keeping it motionless. Then Lexy jumped to her feet and sprinted over to Nicole, who in turn stepped forward and embraced her daughter lovingly as the two cry happily, not saying a word because there were none to grasp the incredible feeling of happiness and relief that the two felt at that moment.

(One car trip and another sandwich later)

Nicole rounded the turn calmly onto her street, with Lexy in the passenger seat looking at the houses as they drove by, trying to guess which one was going to be her new home. "Lexy?" Nicole asked in a suddenly nervous tone. "What is it mom?" Lexy asked, still wearing a giddy smile, she loved saying mom. "I forgot to tell you that... well um... you have two brothers... and a sister." she told her eldest daughter. Lexy felt indescribably excited the moment that she had a family, a real and big family to call her own, but almost immediately after she felt incredibly nervous. _'What if they don't like me?'_ she worried silently.

"Oh my God! I completely forgot! It's your birthday!" Nicole said cheerfully, looking to her daughter with a smile.

"Hey dad, where's mom?" Gumball asked as he sat down on the coach with his siblings to watch some TV. "Your mother went out to pick up some groceries for tonight." Richard replied as he too sat down in his usual spot on the couch next to his kids. They had returned a few minutes ago from the Kemps and Gumball was anxiously awaiting his mother's arrival so that they could start his birthday celebration.

At that moment the familiar sound of the family car pulling into the driveway alerted everyone of Nicole's return. "Mom's home!" Anais and Darwin chanted in unison happily. They heard the soft pounding of footprints on the concrete driveway; oddly it felt like there were too many footsteps, like there was a second person with Nicole. As the door began to creek slightly as it opened everyone gathered happily around the door to welcome her, the door opened calmly and nearly silently. There was Nicole, a bag in her hand and a smile on her face, her free arm was wrapped tightly around a pink cat's shoulder.

Richard was stunned silent and simply walked forward without saying a word and fell to his knees infront of the pink cat and hugged her lovingly. The others were speechless as well, but none of them really understood why, they knew that there was something special about the pink cat but they couldn't remember what, Gumball felt something familiar about the strange pink cat and remembered very vaguely who she really was, Lexy. He walked forward and joined the hug along with his father and mother.

Lexy had tears rolling down her eyes as she smiled at her family, but looked over nervously to the walking goldfish and the small pink rabbit. She knew that they must be family, but she had never met either of them before and was worried that they wouldn't like her.

"Darwin, Anais, come say hello to your sister Lexy." Nicole said choked up with happiness. "Sister?" the two said slowly, letting it sink in for a moment, "Sister!" they shouted this time over joyed, they ran forward to join the hug happily.

Lexy was astonished and just ecstatic to be back home, with her family. She was so grateful, so happy, they accepted her back and welcomed her after all these years, she knew then and there that they had never really lost hope of finding her.

"Happy birthday sweetie." Nicole whispered softly into her ear, kissing her on the top of her head lovingly. The family was whole once again. "Let's get you cleaned up." Nicole said loudly enough so that everyone would break the hug and let her go. Nicole lead her upstairs before turning to Richard and whispering "Invite some of Gumball's friends, were having a party!" Richard smiled widely and went over to the phone to dial up some numbers. then she returned to the hug and whispered into Lexy's ear, "I'll never lose you again."

(About an hour later)

"Hey Rory! Do you know why Gumball just decided to throw together a party?" Agent asked the green ferret who was hoisting a hastily wrapped present onto the table. "No I don't, must be important though, he invited like the whole town!" he responded in amazement of the turnout, "Hey wait a minute, you're the secret agent here, why don't you tell me?" Rory joked to an annoyed Agent. "Oh ha ha, you know just because I like Bond films dousn't mean I'm a secret agent, and I wish you'd stop calling me Agent BM." he responded grumpily. "Not going to happen double oh seven." Rory said with a chuckle, "By the way did you have any problem finding a freaking present?! It's like all the good stuff was taken!" Rory asked in an annoyed tone. "I know right, I barely had time to find a gift on my way here! I hope he likes ITunes." The young human grumbled as he placed the unwrapped card onto the table, gently pulling a stick-on bow from a different present and slapping it onto his gift.

Rory and Agent slowly made their way through the crowd of people to the family room to try and find Gumball. As they got there they noticed something that took them completely off guard. Lexy walked down the stairs just at that moment, dressed in a black shirt and a dark blue skirt, she had showered and cleaned up for the party. "Who do you think she is?" Rory asked his pal. "I don't know." BM mumbled, but Rory wasn't listening as he walked over to her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hi, I'm Rory." He introduced himself nervously. Lexy blushed slightly before replying with a small "Hi, I'm Lexy."

"OK everyone, it's time to sing happy birthday to the birthday boy and girl" Richard shouted happily. The whole room joined in singing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Gumball and Lexy, happy birthday to you!" as a cake with 12 candles was marched out from the kitchen and blown out by the two. Everyone was happy and eat cake as the two opened their presents. "Man, I wish I had bought the two card pack." Rory mumbled as he gave Lexy the ITunes card, "Happy Birthday!" he said sheepishly as Lexy gave him a warm smile in return.

As the hours rolled on by little by little people started to leave the party, until finely it was just the Wattersons, Agent BM, and Rory left, but eventually the Wattersons were alone for the first time in years as a whole family.

"OK everyone it's time for bed." Nicole announced to her family, who were all sitting on or around the living room coach. "Awwww Really?" they all moaned simultaneously. "Really, you have another big day at school tomorrow." she said happily, but gave everyone besides Lexy a dour frown. "Awww man!" they grumbled as they started upstairs, "Wait, why do I have to go to school?" Richard asked partway up the stairs. "You don't" Anais groaned as if it was unfair. A giddy grin grew across Richard's face as he joyfully shouted "Yes!" and hopped back down the stairs while Anais, Gumball, and Darwin marched up to their rooms.

Nicole smiled as her kids walked compliantly to their rooms without an argument, turning her attention to the mess that the party had left for her when she noticed Lexy softening a pillow on the coach before lying down on it. "Lexy, what are you doing?" Nicole asked her daughter curiously. "Um... I was going to sleep on the coach." she replied, confused with the question. "Oh honey, come with me." Nicole told her daughter, who got up from her spot with a heavy yawn and followed Nicole up the stairs.

"This is your room." Nicole said happily as she opened the door to reveal a large bedroom with a big pair of bunk beds in the corner with a fishbowl on a nearby desk. "Really?" Lexy asked as her eyes traveled up to the top bed, then in a moment her eyes were filled with tears again, "You never forgot about me." she said happily. "Nicole bent down and hugged her daughter tight, "Never" Nicole whispered into her daughter's ear. The two broke the hug and Lexy climbed into her new bed, wrapping herself inside the warm blankets and resting her head on the soft pillow. Nicole whispered "Goodnight" to her before shutting the door, Lexy smiled and returned the phrase affectionately.

After a few minutes of tossing and turning in her bed Lexy found herself staring out of the window on the far side of the room, gazing silently at the moon. She took a deep breath as she stared longingly out onto the mysterious glowing guardian, too excited to go to sleep but too tired to do anything else. "It's beautiful isn't it?" a familiar voice asked from below her. "Gumball?" Lexy asked slowly. "Yeah sis?" he asked. "What are you doing up?" she asked quietly so as to not wake Darwin. "It's been a big day, and I'm a light sleeper so it's kinda difficult at the moment." he responded nonchalantly. "So what are you doing?" Lexy asked , now gaining a curiousness as of what her brother was calling beautiful. "same thing as you, just looking at the moon. It's beautiful isn't it?" he asked calmly, Lexy muttered a yes in response, but her mind was thinking about how they had always watched the same moon.

"So how come you're not asleep?" he asked concernedly. Lexy sighed, "Oh I don't know, I guess I might be a little nervous for school." she admitted timidly. Gumball moaned at the very thought of getting up tomorrow for school, but his moaning was ignored by Lexy. "What's it like?" she asked curiously. "It's strange, it has it's good parts and it's bad parts, but mostly it's pretty boring." Gumball told her. "Do you think I'll be in your class." she asked nervously, afraid that she might be in a class where no one knew her. "Probably, they'll not want to separate you from us, besides I think mom can convince them if need be." he said as the siblings shared their first chuckle.

"You should really try to get some sleep though, you know." Gumball reminded his sister. "Yeah, I'll try." she responded in a not too convincing tone before she rolled over quietly in her bed and shut her eyes. Gumball knew that his sister was having a hard time going to sleep, so he started to quietly sing ""Just a perfect day, drink sangria in the park and then later when it gets dark we go home. Just a perfect day, feed animals in the zoo, then later a movie too and then home. Oh it's such a perfect day! I'm glad I spent it with you! Oh such a perfect day! You just keep me hanging on, you just keep me hanging on." By the end of it he could hear the soft snores coming from the top bunk and knew that the song had done the job.

(The Next Day)

"Come on Lexy, we'll show you around." Anais offered as the siblings left Principal Brown's office, the younger pink rabbit leading her also pink cat sister. Anais led her through the hallways and corridors, pointing out the rooms that they passed and even showing Lexy her new locker, located right next to Gumball's and Rory's. Before she knew it the bell rang to alert the students to get to their first class.

The day went bye without much of a problem, Lexy got through all of her classes with relative ease, and even more miraculously she didn't find it boring at all. Of coarse it doesn't hurt when you have two brothers and a sister to explain and show you the ropes, in fact everyone helped Lexy learn how the school worked, Penny invited her to cheer leading try outs, Carrie showed her the library, Teri let her know where the nurse's office was, even tina did her part by not taking her lunch money from Lexy (though Juke did take her spot).

However Rory was by far the most eager to help, insisting that he walk her home, though Gumball, Darwin, and Agent did tag along. "So where's Anais?" Rory asked his pals, a hint of annoyance in his tone. "She took the bus home." Darwin responded happily. "And why didn't you go with her?" the green ferret asked, his original hope of him and Lexy walking alone clearly apparent now. "We wanted to be with our friends!" Darwin shouted with his oblivious happy smile. "Ahhh... and what made you want to take a walk on this fine winter evening, Agent?" he asked his friend, who was falling slightly behind the rest of the group. "I missed the bus." he responded in between wheezes, "And I wish you'd stop calling me Agent!" he complained to his pal. "But that's your nickname, Agent, it's fitting. You like Bond movies, your Agent , sorry but 007 was taken, I checked." Rory jokingly told his friend, bringing a round of chuckling to the group.

Suddenly as they walked a rather large windowless white van approached them from behind, going well under the speed limit. It drove up besides the group of friends without anyone realizing their presence until it was too late. In a matter of seconds the large door on the right side of the van opened and out sprang several men, who quickly pushed their way through the children until they came upon Lexy. They grabbed her and began to drag her, kicking and screaming, back to the van. "What the?!" Gumball shouted confusedly as Rory tried desperately to claw his way to Lexy. "Would you idiots hurry up?! an all too familiar voice bellowed from the driver's seat. Lexy immediately recognized the voice, making her attempts at escape even more desperate. Finally the men were able to force her back into the van, kicking Rory and the others off as Lexy screamed "NOOOO!" as the door was slammed in her face and the van tore down the street.

Without saying a word or even taking a moment to breath again Rory and Gumball were sprinting down the road after the van, followed shortly by Darwin and a heavily panting Agent. Rory was used to running after a couple of years on the cross country team, but Gumball began to feel the pain of cramps after a few minutes, but they ran through their discomfort, keeping the van in sight, no matter how far away it was it was in sight. Luckily for them the van didn't make too many turns and caught every red light that they came across, giving the kids enough time to catch up enough to keep the van within their view.

After only roughly fifteen minutes the van turned into a house's driveway, obviously not noticing the kids who had been following them. Just as Darwin and Agent finally caught up the men dragged Lexy out of the van and into the rundown house, obviously having gagged Lexy since there was no shouts or screams from her. Gumball was ready to charge in after her, but Darwin held him by the collar of his shirt to prevent him from doing something rash. "We need a plan!"Agent muttered in between gasped as he was bent over sucking desperately for air. The others all came to the same concussion and from their position on the corner a couple hundred yards down the road from the house as they formulated a quick plan.

(In the House)

The large boar walked over to Lexy, who was handcuffed with both bands back to the radiator. "Well, well, well!" the boar mocked happily as he crouched down to look at Lexy eye-to-eye. "You know it took me a long time to find you little missy." he said in an horrid tone, "I had to call in a few favors and get a few friends to help out, but I got you." he spoke softly as he stood up straight again.

A smile stretched from ear to ear for a single moment as he stood victorious over Lexy. But then one of the men who had participated in the most recent kidnapping walked into the room and shouted "Sir, we caught some kids trying to break into the house." he informed the boar, much to the dismay of Lexy. "Some of your little friends?" he asked in an absolutely livid tone. Lexy looked away from her capture before responding, "No, I don't know any kids." she lied in a desperate attempt to protect her friends. The boar's right hand slapped across her cheek the moment after she finished talking. "Don't lie to me!" he warned. "Sir it was the kids that were with her when we found her." the man, a horse-faced humanoid, informed the boar, who only looked back to Lexy with an even more hateful glare. "I'll be back for you." he said in a soft angry voice as he left the room, leaving the cat under the watched of the horse-faced man.

"Agent, your plan was SHIT!" Rory shouted to his friend who was tied up along with the rest of them. "Well now, we see the flaws in it, but at the time you have to admit it sounded like a great idea." he argued back as Gumball and Darwin looked at their friends in utter disbelief of how much worse they are in bad situations than themselves, the two looked at each other, shuffling closer so that they were back to back, where Darwin reached into his brother's pocket while the guards were distracted and pulled out his phone. "I thought it was a good idea because you made me believe that we had a secret weapon on our side!" Rory replied angrily. "We do have a secret weapon!" Agent said back confidently. "A blue belt in karate does not equal a secret weapon!" Rory shot back. "Shut up, you mise Datrable little brats!" one of the kidnappers shouted desperately.

"So, this is the heroic rescue party?" a large boar asked as he entered the main room. None of the kids had anything to say to this man and so, to the relief of the guards, there was silence in the house. The boar smiled at this hesitation, and he began to chuckle to himself at just how pathetic this attempt really was, he stopped for a moment after a light beep, but casually brushed it off as him hearing things. "Yikes! I think Lexy might have had a better chance of getting away without you four coming to the rescue!" he scoffed to the children.

Darwin could hear the phone stop it's soft ringing and quickly placed his thumb firmly over the speaker while leaving the microphone end unblocked, and he knew that he needed to get the conversation moving naturally towards talking about where they were. "So what exactly was your plan?" Darwin questioned hesitantly. The boar, who had largely ignored Darwin, now was glaring at him with his hateful eyes, "What are you blathering about, small fry?" he asked, clearly annoyed. " Darwin swallowed the large knot in his throat with discomfort before continuing with his plan, "I mean you kidnap Lexy, and bring her here, in your silly white van, to Raymond avenue, then what?" he questioned, terrified that he had become too obvious.

The boar stared at the goldfish for a moment, making him feel very uncomfortable, then he gave a hearty chuckle before patting Darwin gently on the head, much to the young fish's surprise and annoyance. "Not an unreasonable question, little Poseidon." the boar spoke, giving Darwin his own nickname for lack of a better name to call him. "Well first things first, I'm going to make that little room of her's hot as Hell, then when she's had enough, we'll get back to work." he explained, gesturing over his shoulder to Lexy's room with his thumb.

"And..." Gumball began with a stutter, "and what about us?" he asked nervously. This made the boar look away from Darwin and to slowly eye the four boys one by one. "You know, I don't know." he admitted, "I can't let you go, you'd call the cops. But I also can't keep you here, it would be way too suspicious if five kids went missing in one day." he mumbled to himself. "I see no real way around it, you all have to go." he said with the first real sadness in his voice, he was an awful person, but the title of murderer had never been his to bear.

Suddenly there was a furious screeching of rubber on pavement outside, causing both parties to look to the door in curiosity. _'Thank God for Mrs. Mom's led-foot!'_ Darwin thought to himself in relief. "What the Hell was that?" one of the boar's helpers asked right before the door was violently kicked in, and there in the doorway stood Nicole.

"Lady, this doesn't have anything to do with y..." The boar said angrily, but before he could finish she had attacked and easily defeated everyone of his goons and moved on to him, she took her time with him. Nicole pinned the boar to the ground, holding the shocked kidnapper down with one hand, while using her free hand to do some damage. For every terrible year that he kept her daughter away from her, Nicole took a tooth, landing punch after punch squarely in the teeth of the man who took away her baby, causing a terrible pain for Nicole as her knuckles bruises and bled, but the adrenaline in her system and the pure hatred and anger that she had for this man hid the pain from her.

By the time that Nicole had finished with the boar he was long passed out and would be eating his meals exclusively out of a straw for the foreseeable future. After a quick pat-down Nicole found a pair of keys and a small flip-knife, which she used to free the boys from their roped ensnarement, before going on to the door where her children and their friends had quickly informed her was where Lexy was.

The door creaked loudly as Nicole opened the door to see her daughter sitting there, back against the radiator with both arms hanging limply to either side that was emitting an ungodly heat with her head looking down to the floor and both arms hanging limply to either side . "Lexy, are you ok?" Nicole asked in a caring tone, causing Lexy to raise her head to see her mother standing there. "Mom?" Lexy asked in a doubtful voice, Lexy had been aware of the noise that had been pounding outside her door, but she also remembered how she would hallucinate these kind of scenarios when the heat got to her. Nicole could hear the doubt in her daughter's voice and a tear escaped her eye, breaking the feeling of hate she had felt since receiving Darwin's call, along with her heart. "Yes honey, it's me." she assured as she fumbled to get the key into the lock of the handcuffs. As soon as they were removed from her wrists, Lexy embraced her mother in a hug that seemed to last longer than usual and tighter than a normal one, with Nicole only able to return it in gratitude.

Darwin used his cell phone to call 911 the moment that he had been freed, and it wasn't much longer that cruisers had arrived on the scene, with officers that were more than happy to pile the kidnappers into the backseats of their cruisers, among the happiest to do so was a certain pudgy cop, who couldn't help but grin as he personally packed the unconscious boar into the back of his car, before looking over to see Nicole with her children over by another car, giving their accounts of what had happened to another officer. The pudgy cop climbed into the driver seat of his car before driving the low-life in the back to his own personal slice of hell in jail, but not before taking one final look towards Nicole and Lexy, who were still hugging, and thinking of the day that she had come screaming desperately for help that day in the supermarket, and how no one would ever separate her family ever again.

After hours of police statements and an interview or two with a local news team, the Wattersons finally said goodbye to Rory and Agent and ended up at their house around 10:00 p.m. Nicole immediately sent her children to bed, after all tomorrow was another school day and if there was ever anything that every Watterson could agree upon was that they wanted to put this day behind them. So, by 11:00 all Wattersons were resting peacefully in their beds.

Now Gumball and Darwin, who were used to having a strange day like today, fell asleep rather fast, but Lexy tossed and turned in her bunk, unable to fall asleep. Every time that her eyes closed, even for a moment, she could hear her door creak and the pounding of the boars feet on her floor to come get her, but when her eyes shot open and she looked around she realized that the door was closed and that the boar was beginning his new habit of rotting in a cell, far away from her. But even so, this didn't stop her from having the repeated nightmare.

Eventually it became too much for her to even think about sleep, so Lexy got up from her bed and quietly exit her room. As she passed her parents room, she heard her mother's voice call for her from the adjured bedroom door. Lexy approached the doorway to see Nicole lying on her bed, eyes wide open, obviously not having slept at all yet. "Can't sleep?" Nicole asked in a caring tone, to which Lexy nodded slowly. Nicole scooted over to make room before patting the empty space of her bed in an invitation to sleep with them. Lexy eagerly accepted this offer and climber carefully into the bed, as to not wake up her father, before curling up in between the two.

Nicole knew that it would take more than just the security of her parents to help Lexy sleep, so, in a hushed voice, Nicole began to sing. "Just a perfect day, drink sangria in the park and then later when it gets dark we go home. Just a perfect day, feed animals in the zoo, then later a movie too and then home. Oh it's such a perfect day! I'm glad I spent it with you! Oh such a perfect day! You just keep me hanging on, you just keep me hanging on." Nicole trailed off as her lullaby had ended, seeing that her daughter was now peacefully sleeping, she kissed her on the head and whispered "Goodnight Lexy."

**Wow, so this took forever to write! I wanted this to be done before Christmas, and a few of you probably remember me announcing this for before Christmas, but it took a lot longer to get it to a point where both me and Lexboss felt it should be at. So sorry for having this come out over a month late. Review the story, tell me what you thought, and contact me if you want to talk. And if you liked this feel free to check out some of my other stories, and Lexboss' story the Love (no pressure), and leave a favorite if you like this story (maybe a little pressure). And to all you readers who have an idea for a story, write it! Don't be afraid to write and to let your views and ideas be read and appreciated! Anyway, thank you for reading!**


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